Trump Relationship with Russia

Multiple intelligence agencies in the United States and abroad have confirmed a deliberate attempt by the Russian government to manipulate the results of the U.S. election with hacking and propaganda. Because Trump refused to release his income taxes as every other modern presidential candidate has, the extent of his business dealings in Russia are unclear. He has lied and said he has no ties to Russia.

Timeline

Trump settles lawsuit, ending possible criminal case about how one of his buildings was funded by shady Russian sources.nytimes.com

2016.07.29

Washington Post reports Trump's many ties to Russia and his false claims these ties do not exist.washingtonpost.com

2016.08.14

Ledger in Ukraine shows $12.7 million in undisclosed cash payments between 2007 and 2012 to Paul Manafort, Trump's campaign manager, from pro-Russian political party led by former Ukranian President Viktor F. Yanukovych.nytimes.com(See also Corruption)

2016.10.19

Financial Times probe finds evidence a Trump venture is linked to money laundering.ft.com

U.S. counterintelligence agents have investigated communications that Trump’s national security adviser had with Russian officials, including late December 2016 phone calls.wsj.com(See also Russian Meddling in Election, Russia)

Outgoing CIA Director John Brennan says that Trump does not yet fully appreciate what embracing Russia might mean.cnn.com(See also Russia)

2017.01.16

Trump has been repeatedly pursuing business deals in Russia as far back as 1987.nytimes.com

Donald J. Trump, and eventually his children, repeatedly sought business in Russia as far back as 1987, in a variety of ventures. But none got off the ground.

2017.01.19

American law enforcement and intelligence agencies are examining intercepted communications and financial transactions as part of an investigation into possible links between Russian officials and associates of Trump.nytimes.com

House Republicans block an attempt by Democrats to obtain Trump's tax returns from the IRS so that his financial links to Russia can be examined, among other things.apnews.com(See also Trump Business, Trump Taxes, Corruption)

Trump administration admits it tried to get FBI officials to challenge media coverage of contact members of Trump’s campaign team had with Russian intelligence operatives, raising questions about the politicization of intelligence and the independence of congressional probes.washingtonpost.com(See also Russia, Assaults on Government)

Tapes reveal that in June 2016 GOP House majority leader Kevin McCarthy told colleagues "There's two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump," with Paul Ryan pledging all attendees to secrecy.washingtonpost.com(See also Russia, Russian Meddling in Election)

The special counsel investigating possible ties between Trump’s campaign and Russia’s government has taken over a separate criminal probe involving former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and may expand his inquiry to investigate the roles of the attorney general and deputy attorney general in the firing of FBI Director James Comey.apnews.com(See also Corruption, 2016 Election, Russian Meddling in Election, Legal Activity)

Top lawyers with at least four major law firms have rebuffed White House overtures to represent Trump in the Russia investigations, due to concerns that the president would be unwilling to listen to their advice.yahoo.com(See also Russia, Legal Activity)

Trump is enraged by the appointment of Robert S. Mueller III as a special counsel to investigate possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, and had to be talked out of firing him by his staff.nytimes.com(See also Legal Activity, Corruption)

The Senate voted overwhelmingly 97-2 to allow Congress to block any efforts by Trump to scale back sanctions against Russia, and to strengthen those sanctions in retaliation for Moscow’s alleged interference in the 2016 election and its actions in Syria.washingtonpost.com(See also Russian Meddling in Election, Russia, Syria)

2017.06.16

Michael Cohen, who for years has served as Trump’s personal attorney, has hired a lawyer of his own to help him navigate the expanding Russia investigation.washingtonpost.com(See also Legal Issues, Russia)

2017.06.16

The senior Justice Department official with ultimate authority over the special counsel's probe of Russia's alleged meddling in the 2016 election has privately acknowledged to colleagues that he may have to recuse himself from the matter, which he took charge of only after Attorney General Jeff Sessions' own recusal.abcnews.go.com(See also Russian Meddling in Election, Jeff Sessions, Legal Activity)

Two of the nation's top intelligence officials told Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team and Senate investigators that President Donald Trump suggested they say publicly there was no collusion between his campaign and the Russianscnn.com(See also Russian Meddling in Election, Legal Activity)

Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee sent a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions asking why the DOJ settled a major money-laundering case involving a real-estate company owned by the son of a powerful Russian government official whose lawyer (Natalia Veselnitskaya) met with Donald Trump Jr. last year.businessinsider.com(See also Corruption, Jeff Sessions, Donald Trump Jr)

Trump met with Vladimir V. Putin of Russia a second time at the G20 summit, where they had a private one-on-one discussion over dinner that lasted as long as an hour and relied solely on a Kremlin-provided interpreter.nytimes.com(See also Russia, Administration Errors, Foreign Policy)

Trump has decided to end the CIA’s covert program to arm and train moderate Syrian rebels battling the government of Bashar al-Assad, a move long sought by Russia.washingtonpost.com(See also Syria, Russia)

Some of President Trump’s lawyers are exploring ways to limit or undercut special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s Russia investigation, building a case against what they allege are his conflicts of interest and discussing the president’s authority to grant pardons to aides, family members and even himself.washingtonpost.com(See also Conflicts of Interest, Unprecedented Actions, Legal Activity)

Trump signed a Russia sanctions bill Congress forced on him, adding a statement saying the administration will carry out the law but with reservations about its impact and the constitutionality of some provisions.bloomberg.com(See also Russia, Russian Meddling in Election)

Federal prosecutors working for special counsel Robert Mueller are focusing keenly on the president’s son Donald Trump Jr. and are trying to determine his intent when he attended a controversial June 9, 2016, meeting with a Russian lawyer.buzzfeed.com(See also Donald Trump Jr, Russian Meddling in Election, Russia)

Congressional investigators have unearthed an email from a top Trump aide, Rick Dearborn, who is now Trump's deputy chief of staff, that referenced a previously unreported effort to arrange a meeting last year between Trump campaign officials and Russian President Vladimir Putin.cnn.com(See also 2016 Election, Russian Meddling in Election, Russia, Jeff Sessions)

2017.08.27

While Trump was running for president in late 2015 and early 2016, his company was pursuing a plan to develop a massive Trump Tower in Moscow.washingtonpost.com(See also Russia)

As part of the discussions, a Russian-born real estate developer urged Trump to come to Moscow to tout the proposal and suggested that he could get President Vladimir Putin to say “great things” about Trump.

2017.08.28

A Republican lawmaker, Ron DeSantis (R-Fla) has put forth an amendment that would stop funding for the special counsel’s Russia investigation 180 days after it becomes law, and would prevent special counsel Robert Mueller from probing “matters occurring before June 2015,” which is the month Trump announced his presidential bid.thehill.com(See also Legal Issues, Corruption)

2017.08.28

A business associate of Donald Trump, Felix Sater, promised in 2015 to engineer a real estate deal with the aid of the president of Russia, Vladimir V. Putin, that he said would help Mr. Trump win the presidency.nytimes.com(See also Russia, Russian Meddling in Election)

2017.08.28

A top executive from Donald Trump’s real estate company emailed Russian President Vladi­mir Putin’s personal spokesman during the U.S. presidential campaign last year to ask for help advancing a stalled Trump Tower development project in Moscow, according to documents submitted to Congress.washingtonpost.com(See also Legal Issues, Russian Meddling in Election, Corruption)

Michael Cohen’s email to Putin spokesman came during the U.S. presidential campaign.

2017.08.28

Donald Trump discussed a proposal to build a hotel and condominium tower in Moscow on three occasions with his company’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, who emailed the press secretary for Russian President Vladimir Putin to ask for assistance on the project.bloomberg.com(See also Russia, Russian Meddling in Election)

2017.08.30

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team is working with New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman on its investigation into Paul Manafort and his financial transactions, potentially providing Mueller with additional leverage to get Manafort to cooperate in the larger investigation into Trump’s campaign, as Trump does not have pardon power over state crimes.politico.com(See also Legal Activity, Russian Meddling in Election, Corruption, 2016 Campaign)

2017.08.31

Special counsel Bob Mueller has teamed up with the IRS to assist with his investigation into alleged Russian election interference, enlisting the help of agents from the IRS’ Criminal Investigations unit, one of the federal government’s most tight-knit, specialized, and secretive investigative entities, focusing exclusively on financial crime, including tax evasion and money laundering.thedailybeast.com(See also Russian Meddling in Election, 2016 Campaign, Legal Issues, Corruption)

Amid ongoing concern over the role of disinformation in the 2016 election, Facebook said Wednesday it found that more than 5,000 ads, costing more than $150,000, had been placed on its network between June 2015 and May 2017 from "inauthentic accounts" and Pages, likely from Russia.wired.com(See also 2016 Campaign, Russian Meddling in Election)

2017.09.06

Representatives of Facebook told congressional investigators that the social network has discovered that it sold ads during the U.S. presidential campaign to a shadowy Russian firm tied to pro-Kremlin propaganda, seeking to target voters.washingtonpost.com(See also 2016 Campaign, Russian Meddling in Election)

2017.09.07

Donald Trump Jr. said he was open to receiving information about Hillary Clinton's "fitness, character or qualifications" when he accepted a meeting with a Russian lawyer last year in his opening statement of about 15 to 20 minutes before taking questions behind closed doors from staff members of the Senate Judiciary Committeelatimes.com(See also 2016 Election, Russian Meddling in Election, Donald Trump Jr)

Donald Trump is using money donated to his re-election campaign and the Republican National Committee to pay for his lawyers in the probe of alleged Russian interference in the U.S. election.reuters.com(See also Legal Issues, Russia)

2017.09.19

US investigators wiretapped former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort under secret court orders before and after the election, including a period when Manafort was knows to talk to Donald Trump, an extraordinary step involving a high-ranking campaign official now at the center of the Russia meddling probe.cnn.com(See also Russia, 2016 Campaign)

“If he needs private briefings we can accommodate,” Manafort wrote in the July 7, 2016, email.

2017.10.09

A newly disclosed email sent on the morning of a Trump Tower meeting held during last year’s presidential campaign between Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian could offer evidence backing up the Russian lawyer’s claims that she was meeting with Trump Jr. solely to discuss a 2012 law despised by the Kremlin that imposed financial sanctions on wealthy Russians as punishment for human rights abuses.washingtonpost.com(See also Russian Meddling in Election, Donald Trump Jr)

Steve Bannon, the former White House chief strategist, had holdings in Cambridge Analytica worth between $1 million and $5 million as recently as April of this year.

2017.10.13

Paul Manafort, a former campaign manager for President Donald Trump, has much stronger financial ties to a Russian oligarch than have been previously reported, including that $26 million changed hands in the form of a loan between a company linked to Manafort and Oleg Deripaska, a billionaire with close ties to the Kremlin, bringing the total of their known business dealings to around $60 million over the past decade.nbcnews.com(See also Russian Meddling in Election, Corruption, Russia)

2017.10.17

US investigators believe it was Yevgeny Prigozhin's company (a colleague of Putin and a Russian oligarch) that financed a Russian "troll factory" that used social media to spread fake news during the 2016 US presidential campaign.cnn.com(See also Russian Meddling in Election, 2016 Campaign)

2017.10.18

A number of Republicans are telling the leaders of the congressional committees investigating potential Trump campaign collusion with the Russians to wrap it up soon.cnn.com(See also Russian Meddling in Election)

Even though Donald Trump a bill in July that slapped new sanctions on Russia, the administration has since blown past an October 1 deadline to implement the sanctions, while Congress is now searching for answers as to whether the president is even planning to follow the law that they passed and he signed.thedailybeast.com(See also Russia, Unprecedented Actions)

2017.10.23

The State Department has reportedly revoked a visa for British citizen Bill Browder, a hedge fund manager turned human rights activist responsible for the Magnitsky Act on the same day that the Kremlin issued yet another international arrest warrant for him via Interpol.npr.org(See also Unprecedented Actions, Russia)

2017.10.25

Alexander Nix, who heads a controversial data-analytics firm that worked for Donald Trump’s campaign, wrote in an email last year that he reached out to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange about Hillary Clinton’s missing 33,000 emails, while Assange confirmed that such an exchange took place.thedailybeast.com(See also 2016 Campaign, Russian Meddling in Election)

2017.10.25

Ten months after Trump's Keystone event, he has yet to deliver on his pledge to boost the fortunes of American steel, as two self-imposed deadlines for trade action, one in June and one in July, have come and gone, while the prospect of tariffs has led to a surge of cheap foreign steel into the U.S., with imports rising 24 percent in 2017, the fastest increase in years, and an oligarch-owned steel company is instead winning pipeline contracts.bloomberg.com(See also Hypocrisy, False Statements, Russia)

A federal grand jury in Washington on Friday approved the first charges (which are sealed) in the investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller, as plans were prepared Friday for anyone charged to be taken into custody as soon as Monday.cnn.com(See also Legal Issues, Russia)

2017.10.27

The Washington Free Beacon, a conservative website funded by a major Republican donor, first hired the research firm that months later produced for Democrats the salacious dossier describing ties between Donald J. Trump and the Russian government.nytimes.com(See also 2016 Campaign)

The adviser, George Papadopoulos, has pleaded guilty to lying to the F.B.I. about that conversation, representing the most explicit evidence that the Trump campaign was aware that the Russian government was trying to help Mr. Trump and that the campaign was eager to accept that help.

2017.10.30

Special prosecutor Robert S. Mueller III on Monday revealed charges against three former Trump campaign officials — former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, his longtime business partner Rick Gates and former Trump foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos — marking the first criminal allegations to come from probes into possible Russian influence in U.S. political affairs.washingtonpost.com(See also Legal Activity, Corruption, Russian Meddling in Election, 2016 Campaign)

Standing before reporters in February, Donald Trump said unequivocally that he knew of nobody from his campaign who was in contact with Russians during the election, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions has told the Senate the same thing, but court documents unsealed this week cast doubt on both statements and raised the possibility that Mr. Sessions could be called back to Congress for further questioning.nytimes.com(See also Russian Meddling in Election, Jeff Sessions, Legal Issues)

Leaked files show that a state-controlled bank in Moscow helped to fuel Yuri Milner’s ascent in Silicon Valley, including a real estate venture founded and partly owned by Jared Kushner.nytimes.com(See also Russia, Jared Kushner)

2017.11.05

Wilbur Ross, the commerce secretary, retained investments in a shipping firm with business ties to Russian President Vladimir V. Putin’s inner circle.nytimes.com(See also Russia, Conflicts of Interest)

2017.11.06

A Russian lawyer who met with President Donald Trump’ Jr. last year says he indicated that a law targeting Russia could be re-examined if his father won the election and asked her for written evidence that illegal proceeds went to Hillary Clinton’s campaign.bloomberg.com(See also Russian Meddling in Election, Donald Trump Jr)

2017.11.07

Carter Page, a foreign policy adviser to Donald Trump' campaign whose visit to Moscow during the election has drawn scrutiny, send an email to fellow Trump aides during his trip describing "a private conversation" with a senior Russian official who spoke favorably of the Republican candidate, contradicting past statements about this trip to Russia.washingtonpost.com(See also Russian Meddling in Election, False Statements, Jeff Sessions)

2017.11.08

Corey Lewandowski, a former campaign manager for Donald Trump, said Tuesday night his “memory has been refreshed” regarding his email exchange with Carter Page in which the former foreign policy adviser requested Lewandowski’s permission to travel to Moscow.politico.com(See also False Statements, Russian Meddling in Election)

2017.11.09

After a business meeting before the Miss Universe Pageant in 2013, a Russian participant offered to "send five women" to Donald Trump's hotel room in Moscow, his longtime bodyguard told Congress.nbcnews.com(See also Russia, Misogyny)

2017.11.11

Donald Trump dismissed probes into whether his campaign colluded with Russia as an “artificial Democratic hit job,” and said he believed Putin was being sincere when he insisted that Russia did not attempt to interfere in the 2016 election.politico.com(See also 2016 Campaign, Russian Meddling in Election)

2017.11.13

The Washington Post Fact Checker has identified at least 30 times that members of the Trump campaign met or corresponded with Russians.washingtonpost.com(See also Russia)

The Fact Checker has identified at least 30 times that members of the Trump campaign met or corresponded with Russians.

2017.11.14

On Aug. 3 of last year, just as the US presidential election was entering its final, heated phase, the Russian Foreign Ministry sent nearly $30,000 to its embassy in Washington.buzzfeed.com(See also 2016 Election, Russia)

The wire transfer, which came from a Kremlin-backed Russian bank, landed in one of the embassy’s Citibank accounts and contained a remarkable memo line: “to finance election campaign of 2016.”

2017.11.14

The State Department has hired a private Russian company co-founded by Vladimir Putin's former KGB boss through a $2.8 million no-bid contract, to guard the US Embassy in Moscow.nytimes.com(See also Russia, Conflicts of Interest, Corruption)

2017.11.14

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he now recalls a meeting in March 2016 that has come under scrutiny as part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into whether President Donald Trump’s election campaign colluded with Russia.reuters.com(See also Jeff Sessions, Department of Justice, Russia, Legal Issues)

2017.11.16

Donald Trump’s adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner received and forwarded emails about WikiLeaks and a “Russian backdoor overture and dinner invite” that he kept from Senate Judiciary Committee investigators, according to panel leaders demanding that he produce the missing records.washingtonpost.com(See also Jared Kushner, Russia, russ)

2017.11.17

A senior Russian official who claimed to be acting at the behest of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia tried in May 2016 to arrange a meeting between Mr. Putin and Donald J. Trumpnytimes.com(See also Russia, Jared Kushner)

President Donald Trump has finally started paying his own legal bills related to the Russia probe, rather than charging them to his campaign or the Republican National Committee, but ethics questions are raised about his finalizing of a plan to use personal funds to help current and former White House staff with their legal costs.bloomberg.com(See also Legal Issues, Corruption)

2017.11.17

Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak said on Wednesday that it would take him more than 20 minutes to name all of the Trump officials he's met with or spoken to on the phone.cnbc.com(See also Russia)

2017.11.18

Earlier this year, a Russian-American lobbyist and another businessman discussed over coffee in Moscow an extraordinary meeting they had attended 12 months earlier: a gathering at Trump Tower with President Donald Trump’s son, his son-in-law and his then-campaign chairman.apnews.com(See also Jared Kushner, Donald Trump Jr, 2016 Campaign)

2017.11.20

Travels by Trump campaign adviser Carter Page to meet with senior officials in Hungary during the 2016 presidential election are being closely examined by congressional investigators, given the increasingly close ties between Hungary and Russia and the role of the country as a hub for Russian intelligence activity.abcnews.go.com(See also 2016 Campaign, Russian Meddling in Election)

Documents released as part of Mr. Flynn’s plea agreement show that his pre-inauguration discussions with Sergey I. Kislyak, the Russian ambassador, about foreign policy were part of a coordinated effort by aides running Mr. Trump’s transition into the White House, as Mr. Flynn was directed by a “very senior member” of Mr. Trump’s presidential transition team.nytimes.com(See also Michael Flynn, Russian Meddling in Election, Mike Pence, Jared Kushner, Reince Priebus)

Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law, called Michael Flynn in December 2016 and told him to call members of the UN Security Council in an effort to stop a vote on a resolution critical of Israeli settlement policy.buzzfeed.com(See also Jared Kushner, Michael Flynn, Legal Issues, Israel)

Retired Lt. Gen Michael Flynn has promised “full cooperation” in the special counsel’s Russia investigation and, according to a confidant, is prepared to testify that Donald Trump directed him to make contact with the Russians, initially as a way to work together to fight ISIS in Syria.abcnews.go.com(See also Michael Flynn, Russia, Legal Issues, 2016 Campaign, Criminality)

Michael Flynn’s admission that senior transition officials gave him orders last December casts doubt on the Trump administration’s effort to portray Flynn’s pre-inauguration diplomacy as a rogue operation, as Mike Pence, former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, and former press secretary Sean Spicer all strongly denied early this year that Flynn discussed sanctions last December with Russia’s ambassador to the US.buzzfeed.com(See also Michael Flynn, Russian Meddling in Election, Mike Pence, Sean Spicer, Reince Priebus)

A conservative operative trumpeting his close ties to the National Rifle Association and Russia told a Trump campaign adviser last year that he could arrange a back-channel meeting between Donald J. Trump and Vladimir V. Putin, the Russian president, according to an email sent to the Trump campaign.nytimes.com(See also Russian Meddling in Election, Russia)

The special counsel investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election on Monday accused Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, of working with a Russian colleague to draft an opinion piece about his political work for Ukraine, as recently as November 30th.reuters.com(See also Russian Meddling in Election, Legal Issues, Ukraine)

2017.12.05

Democrats have placed a hold on the nomination of KT McFarland to be ambassador to Singapore until she answers their questions about her knowledge of communications between former national security adviser Michael Flynn and Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.cnn.com(See also Michael Flynn, False Statements, Russian Meddling in Election)

2017.12.06

Donald Trump Jr., while being interviewed privately by the House Intelligence Committee following disclosures that Democrats say must be explored in the probe of possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia before the 2016 election, said that he couldn't answer questions about what he told his father after a controversial meeting with a Russian lawyer in June 2016, citing attorney-client privilege.bloomberg.com(See also Donald Trump Jr, Russian Meddling in Election, False Statements)

That's not how attorney-client privilege works.

2017.12.06

Michael Flynn, President Trump’s former national security adviser, told a former business associate that economic sanctions against Russia would be “ripped up” as one of the Trump administration’s first acts.nytimes.com(See also Michael Flynn, Corruption, Russia)

Flynn believed that ending the sanctions could allow a business project he had once participated in to move forward.

Candidate Donald Trump, his son Donald Trump Jr. and others in the Trump Organization received an email in September 2016 offering a decryption key and website address for hacked WikiLeaks documents, according to an email provided to congressional investigators.cnn.com(See also Russian Meddling in Election, Donald Trump Jr, 2016 Campaign)

2017.12.12

Donald Trump signed a $700 billion defense policy bill, but less than three hours later started complaining about it's imperfections, notably that it contains several provisions specifically targeting Russia.usatoday.com(See also Russia, Department of Defense)

Fourteen former national security, intelligence, and foreign policy officials who have served at senior levels in Republican and Democratic administrations recently wrote an amicus brief as part of a lawsuit brought against Donald Trump's campaign and Roger Stone, his longtime confidant.businessinsider.com(See also Legal Issues, Russian Meddling in Election, 2016 Campaign)

2017.12.15

Before speaking at the FBI National Academy on Friday, Trump said it's "a shame what's happened" to the FBI, called the Russia probe a "Democrat hoax," opened the door to pardoning Michael Flynn, and claimed there was "no collusion."npr.org(See also Unpresidential Behavior, Michael Flynn)

2017.12.15

Buried in campaign finance reports available to the public are connections between a group of wealthy donors with ties to Russia and their political contributions to Donald Trump and a number of top Republican leaders, and thanks to changes in campaign finance laws, the political contributions are legal.dallasnews.com(See also Russia, Russian Meddling in Election, Corruption)

The White House turned over records this fall to special counsel Robert Mueller revealing that in the very first days of the Trump presidency, Don McGahn researched federal law dealing both with lying to federal investigators and with violations of the Logan Act, a centuries-old federal law that prohibits private citizens from negotiating with foreign governments.foreignpolicy.com(See also Michael Flynn, Legal Activity, False Statements)

More than 1,300 Trump condominiums were bought by shell companies, without a mortgage, which are key characteristics that the buyer is laundering money.

2018.01.16

Stephen K. Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist, was subpoenaed by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, to testify before a grand jury as part of the investigation into possible links between Mr. Trump’s associates and Russianytimes.com(See also Steve Bannon, Legal Issues)

2018.01.17

US authorities are poring over hundreds of newly uncovered payments from Russian diplomatic accounts, including transactions by former ambassador Sergey Kislyak 10 days after the 2016 presidential election and a blocked $150,000 cash withdrawal five days after the inauguration.buzzfeed.com(See also Russian Meddling in Election, Corruption, 2016 Election)

2018.01.18

The FBI is investigating whether a top Russian banker with ties to the Kremlin illegally funneled money to the National Rifle Association to help Donald Trump win the presidency, as it is illegal to use foreign money to influence federal elections.mcclatchydc.com(See also Russia, Legal Issues, 2016 Election)

2018.01.23

Attorney General Jeff Sessions was questioned for several hours as part of the special counsel investigation, and the former F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, was interviewed by the office last year, marking the first time that investigators for the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, are known to have questioned a member of President Trump’s cabinet.nytimes.com(See also Jeff Sessions, Department of Justice, Legal Issues)

2018.01.25

Donald Trump ordered the firing last June of Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel overseeing the Russia investigation, but ultimately backed down after the White House counsel threatened to resign rather than carry out the directive.nytimes.com(See also Unpresidential Behavior, Legal Issues, Reversals)

2018.01.26

Donald Trump pressed senior aides last June to devise and carry out a campaign to discredit senior FBI officials after learning that those specific employees were likely to be witnesses against him as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.foreignpolicy.com(See also Unpresidential Behavior, Legal Issues)

2018.01.28

Republican lawmakers warned Donald Trump not to fire Robert S. Mueller III, but showed little sense of urgency to advance long-stalled legislation to protect the special counsel despite a report that Mr. Trump had tried to remove him last June.nytimes.com(See also Legal Issues, Corruption)

2018.01.29

Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee, disregarding Justice Department warnings that their actions would be “extraordinarily reckless,” voted Monday evening to release a contentious secret memorandum said to accuse the department and the F.B.I. of misusing their authority to obtain a secret surveillance order on a former Trump campaign associate, throwing fuel on an already fiery partisan conflict over the investigations into Russia’s brazen meddling in the 2016 presidential election.nytimes.com(See also Unprecedented Actions, Nationalism, 2016 Campaign, Assaults on Facts)

2018.01.29

The Trump administration informed lawmakers that new Russia sanctions called for in a bipartisan bill passed last year are not necessary yet because the measure is already "serving as a deterrent," despite the fact that lawmakers in both parties nudged the administration to implement sanctions legislation that passed overwhelmingly in July — with only five no votes in both the House and Senate.politico.com(See also Russia, Unprecedented Actions, 2016 Campaign)

Special counsel Robert Mueller has filed new charges against former Donald Trump campaign officials Paul Manafort and Rick Gates describing a "scheme" in which the two longtime business partners allegedly laundered $30 million, failed to pay taxes for almost 10 years and used real estate they owned to fraudulently secure more than $20 million in loans.cnn.com(See also Legal Activity, 2016 Campaign, Russian Meddling in Election)

2018.02.27

US Cyber Command chief Adm. Mike Rogers told lawmakers on Tuesday that he has not been granted the authority by Donald Trump to disrupt Russian election hacking operations where they originate.cnn.com(See also Russian Meddling in Election)

US Cyber Command chief Adm. Mike Rogers told lawmakers on Tuesday that he has not been granted the authority by President Donald Trump to disrupt Russian election hacking operations where they originate.

2018.03.05

As Russia’s virtual war against the United States continues unabated with the midterm elections approaching, the State Department has yet to spend any of the $120 million it has been allocated since late 2016 to counter foreign efforts to meddle in elections or sow distrust in democracy.nytimes.com(See also Russian Meddling in Election, Rex Tillerson, Department of State)

As a result, not one of the 23 analysts working in the department’s Global Engagement Center — which has been tasked with countering Moscow’s disinformation campaign — speaks Russian, and a department hiring freeze has hindered efforts to recruit the computer experts needed to track the Russian efforts.

The grand jury investigating alleged collusion between Russia and Donald Trump's presidential campaign has sent a witness a subpoena seeking all documents involving the president and a host of his closest advisers, including emails, text messages, work papers, telephone logs and other documents going back to Nov. 1, 2015, 4½ months after Trump launched his campaign.nbcnews.com(See also Russian Meddling in Election, Steve Bannon, Legal Issues)

2018.03.07

Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III has gathered evidence that a secret meeting in Seychelles including Blackwater founder Erik Prince, just before the inauguration of Donald Trump was an effort to establish a back channel between the incoming administration and the Kremlin — contradicting statements made to lawmakers by one of its participants.washingtonpost.com(See also Legal Issues, Corruption)

Erik Prince met with a Russian official close to Russian President Vladimir Putin and later described the meeting to congressional investigators as a chance encounter that was not a planned discussion of US-Russia relations.

Over two-thirds of U.S. House of Representatives Democrats urged Donald Trump to enact sanctions on Russia, the latest push by lawmakers for a response to investigators’ findings that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. election.reuters.com(See also Russian Meddling in Election, 2016 Election)

“It's almost beyond comprehension that a state, an organized state would do something like that,” Rex Tillerson said on a trip to Africa, hours before being fired.

2018.03.15

The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, has subpoenaed the Trump Organization to turn over documents, including some related to Russia, which is the first known instance of the special counsel demanding records directly related to Donald Trump’s businesses.nytimes.com(See also Legal Activity, Trump Business)

2018.03.18

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ testimony that he opposed a proposal for Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign team to meet with Russians has been contradicted by three people who have spoken about the matter to investigators with Special Counsel Robert Mueller or congressional committees.reuters.com(See also False Statements, leg, Legal Issues, Jeff Sessions, trump)

Donald Trump called on Tuesday to congratulate President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on his re-election, but did not raise with him the lopsided nature of his victory, Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election or Moscow’s role in a nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy and his daughter living in Britain.nytimes.com(See also Unpresidential Behavior, 2016 Election)

2018.03.20

Donald Trump did not follow specific warnings from his national security advisers Tuesday when he congratulated Vladi­mir Putin on his reelection — including a section in his briefing materials in all-capital letters stating “DO NOT CONGRATULATE."washingtonpost.com(See also Unpresidential Behavior, Russia)

Trump also chose not to heed talking points from aides instructing him to condemn the recent poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain with a powerful nerve agent, a case that both the British and U.S. governments have blamed on Moscow.

2018.03.22

Guccifer 2.0, the “lone hacker” who took credit for providing WikiLeaks with stolen emails from the Democratic National Committee, and who communicated with (and was defended by) longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone, was in fact an officer of Russia’s military intelligence directorate (GRU).thedailybeast.com(See also Russia, Russian Meddling in Election, Legal Activity)

Robert Mueller’s team has taken over the investigation.

2018.03.26

Donald Trump ordered the expulsion of 60 Russian officials on Monday, joining a coordinated campaign by two dozen countries to retaliate for the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain in a Cold War-style escalation that again highlighted the disparity between the president’s words and actions.nytimes.com(See also Russia)

The mass expulsion of Russian personnel in the United States was the largest ever, yet the president avoided any public condemnation of Russia’s role in an attack in Britain.

2018.03.28

A top Trump campaign official had repeated communications during the final weeks of the 2016 presidential race with a business associate tied to Russian intelligence, according to a document released on Tuesday by the special counsel investigating Russian interference in the election.nytimes.com(See also Russia, Russian Meddling in Election, Legal Issues, 2016 Election)

The campaign official, Rick Gates, has pleaded guilty in the investigation by the special counsel into Russian election interference.

2018.03.29

Donald Trump's national security advisers spent months trying to convince him to sign off on a plan to supply new U.S. weapons to Ukraine to aid in the country's fight against Russian-backed separatists, yet when the president finally authorized the major policy shift, he told his aides not to publicly tout his decision, because it might agitate Russian President Vladimir Putin.nbcnews.com(See also Russia)

2018.04.03

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein told special counsel Robert Mueller in a classified August 2, 2017, memo that he should investigate allegations that Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was "colluding with Russian government officials" to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.cnn.com(See also Russian Meddling in Election, 2016 Campaign, Legal Activity)

2018.04.09

The special counsel is investigating a payment made to Donald Trump’s foundation by a Ukrainian steel magnate for a talk during the campaign, as part of a broader examination of streams of foreign money to Mr. Trump and his associates in the years leading up to the election.nytimes.com(See also Hypocrisy, Trump Business, Legal Issues)

2018.04.16

Donald Trump on Monday put the brakes on a preliminary plan to impose additional economic sanctions on Russia, walking back a Sunday announcement by U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley that the Kremlin had swiftly denounced as “international economic raiding.”washingtonpost.com(See also Nikki Haley, Russia, Foreign Policy)

Trump conferred with his national security advisers and told them he was upset the sanctions were being officially rolled out because he was not yet comfortable executing them.

2018.04.16

Donald Trump rejected a fresh round of sanctions set to be imposed against Russia, a course change that underscored the schism between the president and his national security team, including the president’s ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki R. Haley, who had already announced that the administration would place sanctions on Russian companies found to be assisting Syria’s chemical weapons program.nytimes.com(See also Reversals, Russia, Nikki Haley)

2018.04.20

The Democratic National Committee opened a surprise legal assault on Donald Trump, filing a lawsuit in federal court alleging that the organization was the victim of a conspiracy by Russian officials, the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks to damage Hillary Clinton’s presidential run.nytimes.com(See also Legal Activity, 2016 Campaign, Russian Meddling in Election)

2018.04.23

Donald Trump twice gave James Comey an alibi for why a salacious report about the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow couldn’t be true: He never even spent the night in Russia during that trip, yet the broad timeline of Trump’s stay, stretching from Friday, Nov. 8, 2013, through the following Sunday morning, has been widely reported, and it’s substantiated by social media posts that show he slept in Moscow the night before the Miss Universe contest.bloomberg.com(See also False Statements, Russia)

2018.04.23

The Treasury Department eased sanctions on Russian aluminum producer Rusal and said it would consider lifting them altogether if the company severs ties with Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch with close ties to President Vladimir Putin.politico.com(See also Department of the Treasury, Russia, Reversals)

2018.04.27

A direct line of communication between the Kremlin-connected Agalarov family and the Trump family was open during the transition after President Donald Trump’s presidential election.buzzfeed.com(See also 2016 Election)

A shell company that Michael D. Cohen used to pay hush money to a pornographic film actress received payments totaling more than $1 million from an American company linked to a Russian oligarch and several corporations with business before the Trump administration.nytimes.com(See also Legal Issues)

2018.05.11

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team has questioned several witnesses about millions of dollars in donations to Donald Trump’s inauguration committee last year, including questions about donors with connections to Russia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.abcnews.go.com(See also Legal Activity, Corruption, Russia, Saudi Arabia)

2018.05.11

The FBI warned four years ago that a foundation controlled by the Russian oligarch who allegedly reimbursed Donald Trump's personal lawyer might have been acting on behalf of Russia's intelligence services.npr.org(See also Legal Issues, Russian Meddling in Election, Russia)

2018.05.16

The Republican at the helm of the Senate’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election backed the assessment by American intelligence agencies that Moscow favored Donald J. Trump in the race, contradicting both the president and fellow Republicans in the House.nytimes.com(See also Russian Meddling in Election, 2016 Election)

Senator Richard M. Burr of North Carolina, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement that he saw “no reason to dispute” the intelligence assessment, which was delivered in the final weeks of the Obama administration.

Eleven days before the presidential inauguration last year, a billionaire Russian businessman with ties to the Kremlin visited Trump Tower in Manhattan to meet with Donald J. Trump’s personal lawyer and fixer, Michael D. Cohen.nytimes.com(See also Russia, Legal Issues)

The meeting preceded a $1 million contract Mr. Cohen received from a firm tied to the Russian oligarch.

2018.06.05

In a confidential, hand-delivered memo to the special counsel, Donald Trump's lawyers acknowledged that the President had dictated a statement, which attempted to deflect questions about a meeting with a Kremlin-tied lawyer at Trump Tower, which could be part of an effort by the president to obstruct a federal investigation.nytimes.com(See also Reversals, False Statements, Legal Issues, Russian Meddling in Election)

2018.06.08

Ahead of the G-7 summit in Canada, Donald Trump told reporters that he thinks Russia, which was ousted from the group of countries with the leading advanced economies for annexing Crimea, to be reinstated — re-forming a Group of 8 (G-8).axios.com(See also Russia, Foreign Policy)

2018.06.11

Several prominent Russians, some in President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle or high in the Russian Orthodox Church, now have been identified as having contact with National Rifle Association officials during the 2016 U.S. election campaign, emerging amid a deepening Justice Department investigation into whether Russian banker and lifetime NRA member Alexander Torshin illegally channeled money through the gun rights group to add financial firepower to Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential bid.mcclatchydc.com(See also Russian Meddling in Election, 2016 Campaign, Department of Justice)

2018.06.14

Donald Trump told G7 leaders that Crimea is Russian because everyone who lives there speaks Russian, according to two diplomatic sources.buzzfeed.com(See also Russia, False Statements)

2018.06.18

FBI Director Christopher Wray stood by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, despite Republicans asserting that the investigation he’s leading into Russian election meddling was tainted by anti-Trump bias from the start.bloomberg.com(See also Russian Meddling in Election, Legal Activity)

“I do not believe Special Counsel Mueller is on a witch hunt,” Wray told the Senate Judiciary Committee.

2018.06.19

Buyers connected to Russia or former Soviet republics made 86 all-cash sales — totaling nearly $109 million — at 10 Trump-branded properties in South Florida and New York City, many of them using shell companies designed to obscure their identities.mcclatchydc.com(See also Trump Business, Russia, Criminality)

"The size and scope of these cash purchases are deeply troubling as they can often signal money laundering activity," said Rep. Adam Schiff of California, a former federal prosecutor.

2018.07.05

Donald Trump lobbed personal and derogatory attacks at two Democratic senators, mocked the #MeToo movement and vouched for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia rally ostensibly intended to solidify support for Montana’s Republican Senate candidate.nytimes.com(See also Unpresidential Behavior, Women)

2018.07.05

The White House has confirmed that Donald Trump will speak one-on-one with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia this month when they meet in Helsinki with no one else in the room besides translators.nytimes.com(See also Russia)

2018.07.10

In their Moscow meetings with members of Russia’s parliament last week, an all-Republican delegation of US members of Congress met with at least two individuals currently sanctioned by the United States.buzzfeed.com(See also Russia, Foreign Policy)

2018.07.12

Despite concerns from American intelligence and law enforcement officials, the White House has ordered that more lawmakers be given access to classified information about an informant the F.B.I. used in 2016 to investigate possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.nytimes.com(See also Russia, 2016 Campaign)

Both the director of national intelligence and the director of the F.B.I. tried to keep the classified documents tightly restricted, fearing that a broader dissemination of operational reports and other sensitive material could lead to more leaks of detailed information about the role of the confidential F.B.I. informant.

2018.07.13

Roger Stone, a longtime associate of Donald Trump, appears to be the unnamed individual in a new Russia probe indictment made public, who is described as having communicated with Guccifer 2.0 in 2016.cnn.com(See also 2016 Campaign, Russian Meddling in Election)

2018.07.15

Donald Trump said that he hadn’t thought of pressing Russian President Vladimir Putin on extraditing the dozen Russian officials charged with hacking Democratic emails, instead blaming the Democrats’ “bad defenses” for getting hacked during the 2016 campaign.washingtonpost.com(See also Russia, Russian Meddling in Election, 2016 Campaign)

2018.07.15

Shortly before Donald Trump detonated a NATO summit, shanked the beleaguered British prime minister and prepped for a face-to-face love session with Vladimir Putin, his White House quietly divested itself of a senior official hawkish on Russia and bullish on the transatlantic military alliance.thedailybeast.com(See also Russia, Resignations and Dismissals)

2018.07.16

Donald Trump refused to support the collective conclusion of U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election, saying that Russian President Vladi­mir Putin had given him an “extremely strong and powerful” denial during their private talks here, and would not challenge Putin’s claim that the Russian government played no role in trying to sabotage the U.S. election, even as the Justice Department indicted 12 Russian intelligence officers, accusing them of hacking Democratic emails as part of a broad subterfuge operation to help Trump win the...washingtonpost.com(See also Russia, Russian Meddling in Election, 2016 Election)

2018.07.16

Donald Trump stood next to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and publicly challenged the conclusion of his own intelligence agencies that Moscow interfered in the 2016 presidential election, an extraordinary show of trust for a leader accused of attacking American democracy, while also refusing to name a single action for which Mr. Putin should be held accountable.nytimes.com(See also Russian Meddling in Election, Unpresidential Behavior)

2018.07.17

Under unrelenting pressure from congressional Republicans, his own advisers and his allies on Fox News, Donald Trump abruptly reversed course and claimed he had misspoken during a news conference with President Vladimir V. Putin about whether Russia tried to influence the 2016 presidential election, yet even while conceding this point, he undercut his own assertion that he had accepted the findings of Russian involvement.nytimes.com(See also Reversals, Russian Meddling in Election, Administration Errors)

“Could be other people also,” Mr. Trump said, appearing to ad-lib. “A lot of people out there.”

2018.07.18

Despite his attempts to blur the truth, two weeks before his inauguration, Donald J. Trump was shown highly classified intelligence indicating that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia had personally ordered complex cyberattacks to sway the 2016 American election, including evidence of texts and emails from Russian military officers and information gleaned from a top-secret source close to Mr. Putin, who had described to the C.I.A. how the Kremlin decided to execute its campaign of hacking and disinformation.nytimes.com(See also Assaults on Facts, Russian Meddling in Election, Cybersecurity)

2018.07.18

Donald Trump, who has been under fire for not aggressively confronting Russian President Vladmir Putin over election interference, said he believes Russia is no longer targeting the United States, which is at odds with the views of U.S. intelligence officials, as just last week, Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats said Russia and other countries are continuing to target American businesses, the government and other institutions and “the warning lights are blinking red.”washingtonpost.com(See also Russian Meddling in Election, False Statements, Reversals)

“These actions are persistent. They’re pervasive, and they are meant to undermine America’s democracy on a daily basis, regardless of whether it is election time or not,” Coats said during a speech at a Washington think tank.

2018.07.19

Donald Trump has invited Russian leader Vladimir Putin to Washington for a summit in the fall.bloomberg.com(See also Russia)

2018.07.19

House Republicans on Thursday morning thwarted a Democratic effort to add new funding for election security measures — opening the party up to yet more criticism in the wake of Donald Trump’s controversial meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.mic.com(See also Cybersecurity, Russia)

2018.07.22

Donald Trump made false claims and stated with no evidence that his administration’s release of top-secret documents related to the surveillance of a former campaign aide had confirmed that the Justice Department and the F.B.I. “misled the courts” in the early stages of the Russia investigation.nytimes.com(See also False Statements, Assaults on Facts, Department of Justice)

2018.07.23

After a week of tortuous statements, walk-backs and clarifications on whether he believes the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump has once again appeared to have come full circle, falsely dismissing the issue as “all a big hoax.”washingtonpost.com(See also Reversals, False Statements)

The Trump administration is looking into lifting sanctions against a major Russian aluminum company founded by one of Vladimir Putin's closest allies, even though its former owner, oligarch Oleg Deripaska, was sanctioned this year by the US in an attempt to punish the Kremlin for interfering in the 2016 US presidential election.cnn.com(See also Reversals, Steven Mnuchin, Department of the Treasury)

Maria Butina, the Russian gun-rights activist who was charged last month with working as an unregistered agent of the Kremlin, socialized in the weeks before the 2016 election with a former Trump campaign aide who anticipated joining the presidential transition team, emails show, putting her in closer contact with Trump’s orbit than was previously known.washingtonpost.com(See also 2016 Campaign)

The tweet also served as an admission that the Trump team had not been forthright when Donald Trump Jr. issued a statement in July 2017 saying that the meeting had been primarily about the adoption of Russian children.

2018.08.13

Judge Dabney Friedrich, appointed by Donald Trump to the U.S. District Court of Washington, D.C., ruled that Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into the Trump campaign's ties to Russia is constitutional.axios.com(See also Legal Activity, Russian Meddling in Election)

This is the fourth federal judge to support the probe's validity.

2018.08.13

The FBI fired agent Peter Strzok, a 21-year veteran of the law enforcement agency who has come under fire for texts he sent that were critical of Donald Trump, despite the fact an independent review by career FBI officials recommended Strzok be suspended for 60 days and demoted.mic.com(See also Fascism, Russian Meddling in Election, Department of Justice)

2018.08.15

The White House is revoking the security clearance of John Brennan, a former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and mulling pulling them for several other former intelligence chiefs and other officials.abcnews.go.com(See also Assaults on Civil Liberties, Fascism)

Donald Trump accused NBC News of “fudging” their interview, in which he tied his decision to fire FBI Director James Comey to a probe into Russian election meddling, but offered no supporting evidence.reuters.com(See also False Statements, Unpresidential Behavior)

2018.09.09

George Papadopoulos, the one-time foreign policy adviser to Donald Trump who became swept up in the special counsel investigation, says members of the Trump campaign team were “fully aware” and in many cases supportive of his efforts to broker a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.abcnews.go.com(See also Russian Meddling in Election, 2016 Campaign, Legal Activity)

2018.09.14

Paul Manafort, Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, agreed to cooperate with the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, as part of a deal in which he pleaded guilty to reduced charges stemming from consulting work he did for pro-Russia political forces in Ukraine.nytimes.com(See also Legal Activity, Criminality, 2016 Campaign)

2018.09.17

Donald Trump ordered the declassification of sensitive documents related to the investigation into Russian election interference, a move that could eventually allow the public unprecedented access to a probe that he has repeatedly railed against.wsj.com(See also Corruption, Russian Meddling in Election)

President also orders declassification of FBI interviews with Justice Department official Bruce Ohr

2018.09.21

Donald Trump walked back his order earlier this week to declassify information in the ongoing probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election, saying Justice Department officials and others had persuaded him not to do so for the time being.washingtonpost.com(See also Reversals, 2016 Election, Department of Justice)

2018.09.22

K.T. McFarland, a former top White House official has revised her statement to investigators about a key event in the probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election, after her initial claim was contradicted by the guilty plea of former national security adviser Michael Flynn.washingtonpost.com(See also Michael Flynn, Reversals, Russia)

Donald Trump’s company planned to give a $50 million penthouse at Trump Tower Moscow to Russian President Vladimir Putin as the company negotiated the luxury real estate development during the 2016 campaign, according to four people, one of them the originator of the plan.buzzfeednews.com(See also Trump Business, Conflicts of Interest, 2016 Campaign)

Mr. Cohen said he discussed the status of the project with Mr. Trump on more than three occasions and briefed Mr. Trump’s family members about it. He also admitted he agreed to travel to Russia for meetings on the project.

2018.11.29

The criminal information filed by Robert Mueller’s prosecutors in the Southern District of New York states that in a period that lasted until the middle of June 2016, Michael Cohen asked the press secretary to Russian President Vladimir Putin for a meeting with Putin in Russia as part of a deal that would have led to a Trump Tower being built in Moscow. and that Cohen spoke to Donald Trump about the deal more than three times during that period, and asked both Trump and other senior campaign officials about a Trump trip to Russia in connection with the deal.bloomberg.com(See also Conflicts of Interest, Legal Activity, Criminality, Trump Business)

Cohen is pleading guilty to lying to Congress by saying these negotiations had ended by January 2016 and by denying that he spoke to Trump about them.

2018.12.05

Michael T. Flynn, Donald Trump’s first national security adviser, helped substantially with the special counsel’s investigation and should receive little to no prison time for lying to federal investigators, according to prosecutors, as Mr. Flynn was a key cooperator who helped the Justice Department with several investigations sitting for 19 interviews with Robert Mueller’s office and other prosecutors and handed over documents and communications.nytimes.com(See also Michael Flynn, Legal Activity, 2016 Campaign, 2016 Election)

Mr. Flynn has pleaded guilty to lying to investigators about conversations he had with the Russian ambassador to the United States during the presidential transition.

2018.12.07

Federal prosecutors said that Donald Trump directed illegal payments to ward off a potential sex scandal that threatened his chances of winning the White House in 2016, putting the weight of the Justice Department behind accusations previously made by his former lawyer, while in another filing, prosecutors for the special counsel investigating Russia’s 2016 election interference said an unnamed Russian offered Mr. Cohen “government level” synergy between Russia and Mr. Trump’s campaign in November 2015.nytimes.com(See also Legal Activity, 2016 Campaign)

A Russian gun rights activist, Maria Butina, pleaded guilty to conspiring with a senior Russian official to infiltrate the conservative movement in the United States as an agent for the Kremlin from 2015 until her arrest in July, admitting to working with an American political operative and under the direction of a former Russian senator and deputy governor of Russia’s central bank to forge bonds with officials at the National Rifle Association, conservative leaders, and 2016 U.S. presidential candidates, including Donald Trump, whose rise to the Oval Office she presciently...washingtonpost.com(See also 2016 Campaign, Legal Activity, Criminality, Russian Meddling in Election)

Butina becomes the first Russian national convicted of trying to sway U.S. policy in the run-up to the 2016 election.

2018.12.19

A new document shows Donald Trump signed a letter of intent to move forward with negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Russia, despite his attorney Rudy Giuliani claiming the document was never signed.cnn.com(See also False Statements, Trump Business)

2018.12.19

The U.S. Treasury said it will lift sanctions on the core empire of Russian businessman Oleg Deripaska, including aluminum giant Rusal and its parent En+, watering down the toughest penalties imposed since Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Crimea.reuters.com(See also Department of the Treasury, Steven Mnuchin, Reversals)

2018.12.19

The United States will move quickly to withdraw all forces from Syria, the White House abruptly announced, as Donald Trump defied warnings from his top advisers and upended plans for a continued mission against the Islamic State.washingtonpost.com(See also Syria, Foreign Policy)

The move plunged U.S. allies into uncertainty and created the potential for greater regional instability even as it provided Russia and its ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a chance to cement greater control over the country.

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia hailed the decision by Donald Trump to withdraw United States forces from Syria, calling it “correct” because the American troops were not needed.nytimes.com(See also Syria, Russia)

Analysis

Trump's numerous bankruptcies have made it difficult for him to get loans from U.S. banks, so he has had to turn to Russia for financing. He has lied about his relationship with Putin and with Russia. At least as far back as 2008, his company has claimed to do "disproportionate" business with Russia. He praised Putin and criticized Obama in a 2013 video (in timeline above), implying Putin was surveilling Trump's office. His advisers have business ties to Russia, including Paul Manafort, who resigned from the Trump campaign after the New York Times disclosed a secret ledger in Ukraine revealing $12.7 million in secret cash payments to Manafort.

There is consensus in the intelligence community that Putin directed hackers to release information intended to damage Hillary Clinton's campaign and secure the presidency for Trump. Trump's team made the Republican Party platform more favorable to Russia. And intelligence reports also indicate Russia has information that could be used to blackmail Trump.

Assessments

A hostile foreign power stole confidential correspondence from American citizens — this is no different than physically breaking into an American office and carting off boxes of written letters — and funneled that stolen material to a willing conspirator, Julian Assange. The foreign power then had its desired result achieved on our Election Day.